Peter Michael Posted August 2, 2019 Share Posted August 2, 2019 Hello Basschatters, I would like to ask for some advice please. When playing pizz at a reasonably fast tempo for me, I guess about 140bpm plus, I get cramp in right hand. It usually starts after a few songs, and hits about a minute into any song. At the same time my hand tries to make itself into a sort of claw shape. Once cramps start I find it is hard to make a nice note, or a note at all even. I have cramps generally, so it may just be me, but I wondered if there is any technique, practise or tricks that might help . I have attached a vid of my right hand so you can see my technique, what there is of it. Apologies for lapses of tempo and intonation towards the end. Any advice would help a lot. Thanks Peter Right hand bass.mp4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinyd Posted August 3, 2019 Share Posted August 3, 2019 It looks to me like you're doing too much of the pulling with your fingers, whereas you should be using more of your whole arm. Geoff Chalmers does a far better job of explaining than I ever could: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HazBeen Posted August 3, 2019 Share Posted August 3, 2019 20 minutes ago, tinyd said: It looks to me like you're doing too much of the pulling with your fingers, whereas you should be using more of your whole arm. Geoff Chalmers does a far better job of explaining than I ever could: This! You cannot keep up with just fingers, too much strain and you muscles will cramp up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinyd Posted August 3, 2019 Share Posted August 3, 2019 This guy seems to know a bit about technique as well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickA Posted August 3, 2019 Share Posted August 3, 2019 Spread the load between first and second finger ( ie use both and alternate a bit .. hard to explain) else you're using the same muscle and tendon the whole time, use whole lower arm not just fingers. Do stretches on fingers of right hand. Soak right hand in hot water before and after practice. Some famous violinist (Oisterach?) said 10 minutes with your hand in hot water is worth an hour of practice. I had some physio for similar and it got better with the stretches and hotcwater ...though in my case it wasn't the bass playing that caused it but typing / mousing wrong. Bass playing just used an already strained tendon. One thing the physio said was DON'T stop playing, keep at it and do the stretches too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miles'tone Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 (edited) +1 for Geoff Chalmers advice above. That, combined with these warm up stretches have worked wonders with my own hand cramps.. Also, Chris Fitzgerald explains things brilliantly here too! Edited August 4, 2019 by miles'tone 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Michael Posted August 5, 2019 Author Share Posted August 5, 2019 Thank you all for your time and advice. Lots of good stuff there, off for a practice. Thank you Peter 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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